Last day of Classes

For the last day of classes I decided to do a Wii Review game with each of my classes. Most students enjoy having an opportunity to play a video game even if it is only for less than a minute. It helps spark that competitive nature. I have tried to give my students the tools that they need to pass this regents on Thursday. I have given them certain sites like regentsprep.org and castlelearning.com that can help them practice their skills and give them instant feedback. I have also opened all prior review assignments so that students could go back and review all questions from assignments I have given them in the past.

Beyond that I told my students to contact me on facebook if they have any last minute questions about the Regents material. Hopefully, all of them use this ability to prepare.

I feel that the year overall has gone pretty well. I do wish I had an opportunity to get all my equipment sooner, because I think that it would have given me a chance to integrate technology more fully into my lesson plans. I think all my students benefited from the tech grant because it gave me the opportunity to try new things that many of them enjoyed doing. If I had to grade my own teaching ability and how I think I did this year, I would probably award myself with a grade of a B. I think I really improved my craft this year, but I think I still have lots of potential to unlock.

Final Week

I have been working on gearing up the students for the Algebra Regents which is in less than a week. For technology I have been making Castle Learning assignments that need to be completed. These assignments are given to students once a week and take about an hour. I have spent a great deal of time also showing students the regentsprep.org website. This website is great because it has many interactive features that allow students to practice and check their work.

This week my students have taken a final along with working on a Menus project in class. Some new things I added to this menus project were a section that included statistics and probability. Students could be required to create a box and whisker plot from data they collect off the internet. For probability, they would have to conduct an experiment and discuss the differences between experimental and theoretical data. I will keep everyone updated on the Menus Project and how it turns out.

Final Results: 22 out of 45 passed.... a little less than half, but a gigantic improvement.